The present invention relates to dither mechanisms for ring laser gyros, and has particular relation to apparatus for tuning the frequency of such dither mechanisms.
A ring laser gyro must be mounted on a central axial flexure, or dither mechanism, so that it may be axially rotated to avoid lock-in. The frequency of axial dither is heavily dependent upon the particular flexure and the rotational inertia of the ring laser gyro, and is not easily changed, even though some frequencies may be more desirable than others. The prior art has therefore first determined the desirable frequency for the particular application at hand, and has then designed a flexure which will dither at that frequency. This approach prevents off-the-shelf stockpiling of standard flexure sizes.